Server Merge Please

Yea unfortunately LJ was just a stop gap because of the flood of people playing, if they had added the instanced zones earlier they would not have needed LJ, but they probably would have needed instanced raid bosses.

Hindsight 20/20 they should have had Phinny + RF with instanced XP zones like they have them now.
I would say both with instanced raid bosses as well, the on phinny and rf would be horrible if LJ did not slice some players out of those 2 communities and make some people on RF/LJ quit.

They fired the guy that knew how to do server merges.

Or just ghetto merge servers and allow free xfers, one with a 3 month time line and the other with a 6 month time line. I think the vast majority of people on rage and LJ would be ok with that.

Ragefire and Lockjaw voted for the rules they have now. That should be respected and no change to the said rules should ever happen.
Whoever doesn't like these rules anymore has the option to reroll on Phinigel : there are enough players at all levels to make it an enjoyable experience.

The rules for Lockjaw actually stated our timeline would be revisited. That hasn't happened yet.

I mean, I guess it depends on whether you interpret "revisited" to mean "guaranteed changed" or "we'll review them and may or may not make a change"

Roshen posted in last month's thread: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ous-vote-on-lockjaw-3-month-mark-soon.230018/

He stated:

To me this qualifies that they have and are continuing to revisit the unlock rules, but have so far decided against a change.

I don't get why it's such a hassle to re-roll this early on our server. I spent literally hundreds of dollars on Povar when I came back to get both of my accts up to level. The day Phinny came out I was out there killing Gnolls and never looked back.

Server merge is the logical solution, but it won't happen due to logistical reasons.

Next best thing IMO to get a bit of much need balancing between the 3 modern TLP:

- announce Raid Instancing on LJ to go live on March 16th (without MotM!!!)

- announce going forward LJ will be clear + 6 month + vote unlock,WITH raid instancing

- announce going forward RF will be clear + 3 month + vote unlock, WITHOUT raid instancing.

- allow free transfers between RF <> LJ until SoV unlocks on RF, at which point any transfers (paid or otherwise) become impossible, forever.

- allow *paid* transfers Phinny >> RF or >> LJ during this same ~2 week window abive.

The net result of these changes is more choices to the customer base, covering a broader gamut of play choices and lifestyles. You will have 3 different servers, each serving different play styles and preferences, targeting a different core player:

- LJ becomes the very slow extreme casual (carebear) server with 6+ month vote unlocks, fast xp, full boxing, and raid instancing *without* MotM.

- RF becomes the full-on competitive server with 3+ month vote unlocks, fast XP, full boxing, open world raiding (with MotM).

- Phinny remains the"fastest" server with 3 month fixed unlocks, slow xp, minimal boxxing, and raid instancing (again, with MotM).


You are only changing the rules on ONE SERVER!!!

Phinny remains unchanged.

Ragefire remains unchanged (mostly...it does move to 3 month eras one era early, I think this was spposed to start with Luclin so it will be starting 1 early).

LJ gets raid instancing, and loses MotM.

Nothing wrong with this, because right now yo have TWO IDENTICAL servers, which was in hindsight a colossal mistake (although many of us, yours truly, called this the *instant* LJ was announced). This effectively fixes that mistake, and peels some population off of Phinny.

Do this, and Ragefire becomes Fippy, and Phinny and LJ both become completely viable. Phinny will lose players to LJ (not many, probably 10% to 20%), but it can stand to lose them.

That's the solution, and it requires exactly 0 code changes. Just metadata/deployment.

THIS.

Also the fact that exp rates are way slower on Phin. What's to stop you crybabies from levleing there and coming here? Piss off.

Roll an Ikky, don't look back. 12 weeks to get to 60 and then raid Velious. Buy a lot of xp pots.

So the rules were voted on to change 3 times, but a 4th shouldn't happen? That makes no sense. If the people that play on the server want 3 months or 9 months, that should be an option. Personally, I think it should be moved to 3 months SINCE THERE IS A VOTE EVERY XPAC. Excuse me, this is an EQ message board, logic has no place here. My bad.

TFM, I agree with so much of what you post and just want to clarify what you are saying. Essentially on LJ you would suggest that open world bosses have the motm and instance raid bosses not have motm? It is an interesting suggestion and am not entirely sure how I feel about it.

The reality of motm was it was intended to slow down the mage armies, iirc however it did not. Now with the pet agro changes, essentially the mages armies were forced to level up warriors to tank the buffed bosses, so the pet agro change really did not slow them down either.

So while in hindsight these changes and why they were made have not made a difference, they have sort have made the game more challenging. Without motm, as a balanced group six boxer w/o a mage in my box, so much content would be rendered trivial. Something to think about for everyone for sure.

However obviously I support your idea for the three different rule sets for the three different servers, it only make sense. Sure, I imagine it will be a programming nightmare, however long term I can not see how it would not be worth it based on customer sub retention. I have seen so many friends stop playing even way before Phinny ever launched.

I guess I have a question for the Phinny player base based on the training of efreeti threads, is not the whole zone available as a raid expedition style instance or is that reserved for Naggy/Vox. If it is the bosses that are only raid expedition style instanced, how does it work for CT? I am thinking to raid expedition the instance you need a minumum number such as six much like on live? Hence the training of the main zone between groups of less then six? Just looking for understanding of how it has been implemented, any clarification would be welcome, thanks!